Hilton Reaches 20% Waste Reduction Goal

by | Sep 21, 2012

This article is included in these additional categories:

Hilton Worldwide has achieved its five-year goal to reduce total waste output by 20 percent over 2008 levels, two years ahead of schedule, according to figures from its Lightstay sustainability measurement system.

The company has reduced its waste output by 23.3 percent against the 2008 baseline, the results show. The 2011 Lightstay report shows that the company has so far reduced energy consumption by 9.7 percent, carbon output by 10.3 percent and water use by 7.5 percent, using the same baseline. Hilton says that these figures put it on track to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions by 20 percent, and water consumption by 10 percent by 2014.

The LightStay system measures indicators across 200 operational practices including housekeeping, paper product use, food waste, chemical storage, air quality and transportation. By December 2011 more than 3,800 Hilton properties were using LightStay. This means that more than 450 million square feet of building space is now within the system – an amount greater than all the office spaces in New York City and ten times all hotel rooms in Las Vegas, Hilton says.

Every brand and hotel globally is required by brand standards to measure and make continual improvements to their overall sustainability results as part of LightStay. In an attempt to support these efforts, the system includes a social network dashboard that allows properties from around the world to “neighbor” one another and share information on best practices or compare respective performance.

To date, Hilton Worldwide has nearly 2,000 “neighbors” in LightStay and more than 5,000 improvement projects that highlight different approaches to common sustainability challenges. For example, Hilton Americas – Houston Texas converted to using biodiesel as a preferable fuel, allowing the hotel to recycle 14,000 pounds of kitchen oil and divert seven tons of oil-based food waste from landfills. In South America, the DoubleTree Guest Suites by Hilton Paracas Peru uses a wastewater reclamation plant that is independent of the area sewage system and cleans wastewater to a quality that can be used for watering the hotel’s garden areas, Hilton says.

The company also recently integrated the Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative 1.0 methodology, spearheaded by the International Tourism Partnership and World Travel & Tourism Council, into LightStay. This methodology can be applied to any of its properties worldwide if requested, the company said.  As part of the LightStay Meeting Calculator, Hilton Worldwide also can provide customers with real-time data on food, travel and operational practices for any its properties.

Additional articles you will be interested in.

Stay Informed

Get E+E Leader Articles delivered via Newsletter right to your inbox!

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Share This